Page 929 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

YENSON
Shanghai
circa 1910-1940

Yenson was a retail silversmith who managed to orchestrate the manufacture of silver items that had a quite
definitive style, albeit redolent of the period they were made. All items were high quality; all items had that
signature Yenson quality that made them quite recognisably Yenson.

While this 5-piece tea and coffee service [it has sugar tongs, making the 5th piece] is unmistakably early 1930’s
and it is obviously a quality piece, yet it is not of the style one would expect from the Chinese Export Silver
period despite its inclusion of an engraved bamboo decorative motif. The coffee and tea pot handles even have
ivory insulators. The set has a “retail store” feel to it, which may indicate that Yenson, in its day, was a sought
after destination for the substantial international community in Shanghai and the new affluent middle class
Chinese who were anxious to embrace a Western lifestyle.